SPCA working to rescue 40 cats from deplorable conditions inside White Plains apartment
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A suburban animal welfare agency has a huge job on its hands, removing 40 cats from deplorable conditions and then trying to place them in adoptive homes.
Thursday was the second day of a rescue operation. Officers with the SPCA of Westchester trapped and removed several more cats from a seventh-floor apartment at 235 South Lexington Ave. in White Plains.
An estimated 40 cats were living in unsanitary and crowded conditions.
"The cats are living everywhere. I mean, up in the cabinets, the ceiling. Literally, there's a sofa that has holes in it. We could see some of them living under there. So, it's just not a very good situation," said Lisa Bonanno of the SPCA of Westchester.
Bonanno said a dozen cats were relocated to the SPCA shelter in Briarcliff, adding it will take days to rescue them all.
Residents of the White Plains building said they'd been complaining for weeks about the smell.
"It just smelled really horrible. People were still living there. I know she's elderly. That's all I know," one woman said.
"It's very sad that someone is actually living there. So you have to imagine, if they don't realize those conditions are not okay for them to live in, they're certainly not going to realize that it's not okay for the cats," Bonanno said.
She said the cats were presenting as frightened, not feral, and the SPCA has high hopes most of them can be adopted into loving homes.
All of them need veterinary care, with ear, eye, skin, and respiratory infections.
The rescue operation will cost the SPCA thousands of dollars. It is asking for donations and, eventually, will need many adoptive families to step up.
CBS New York was told efforts are being made to relocate the tenant to a suitable new home. The apartment requires significant work to make it habitable.